French Hotel Lets Guests Live Like Hamsters

Hamster hotels, you might think, are hotels for real hamsters. In this case, however, they are hotels for people, but designed as though a hamster might live in it.

For 99 euros ($147) a night, visitors to the hotel in Nantes, France can eat hamster chow, run in a giant wheel and sleep in hay. They even dress up like hamsters. It's known as the "Hamster Villa".

Why would anyone want to live like a hamster, particularly at this price? Owner Yann Falquerho told Reuters, "The Hamster in the world of children is that little cuddly animal. Often, the adults who come here have wanted or did have hamsters when they were small."

Despite this, however, apparently the spartan hamster life is getting an upgrade. A the same time, the price will rise as they will be adding wi-fi and a giant TV screen.

Burglars Steal Baby’s Ashes

A family in Arizona was burglarized, but are willing to give the burglars everything if they can just get an old music box back. The reason: the box contains the ashes of their dead child.

The family returned to their Peoria, AZ home yesterday afternoon to find the garage door open and the house torn apart. The burglars stole electronics and a wooden music box. Inside the box, however, were the ashes of 5-month-old Tyler.

According to his mother, Lindsay Grannis, he died in 1996. She reportedly laid him down for a nap with his twin brother and "he just never woke up." While that sounds a lot like SIDS, in those days, people were not so aware of SIDS.

The family says the box has no monetary value and that they're willing to cut a deal with the burglars. The family said that if the ashes are returned to any Peoria or Phoenix fire station, the burglars can keep the rest of the stolen items, no questions asked.

It is believed that the burglars got opened the garage door using a universal garage door remote. Hopefully, they will read this, and have a heart.

Oprah To End Show in 2011

Oprah Winfrey will end her talk show when he contract expires in 2011. Tim Bennett, the president of her production company Harpo, said the following in a message to affiliates:

"Tomorrow, Oprah will announce live on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' that she has decided to end what is arguably one of the most popular, influential and enduring programs in television history. The sun will set on the Oprah show as its 25th season draws to a close on Sept. 9, 2011."

Why would Oprah quit? Poor ratings are not the reason. While her daily ratings are not as big as they used to be, with all the distractions of the Internet and hundreds of cable channels, it's unlikely that any new daytime talk show will be able to repeat the success of "Oprah" anytime soon.

No, it's because Oprah Winfrey wants to concentrate on her coming cable channel, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. OWN will premiere in January 2011, according to an anonymous source speaking with tne New York Times. OWN is a joint venture between her production company and the Discovery Networks.

The timing of the launch and the end of her contract is a positive for OWN. Though not said, Oprah Winfrey will obviously be able to promote OWN for the time before her contract ends.

Winfrey, 55, informed her talk show staff of her decision on Thursday afternoon. She had previously stated she would make a decision about whether she would extend her contract or sign a new one by the end of this year.

Fox News Uses Archival Footage, Makes Palin Book Tour Crowd Look Larger

Fox News, which was recently caught by Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show" for using footage of a Sept. 12 Tea Party rally in Washington evidently to make a Nov. 5 anti-health reform rally look bigger, has been caught again. This time, they used archival footage of a 2008 Palin campaign stop, making the crowed at a book tour event.

In the first case, Sean Hannity admitted that "The Daily Show" was correct. Fox News had used footage of a Sept. 12 Tea Party rally, already contentious because a Fox New producer coached the protesters and stage-managed them, evidently to make a Nov. 5 anti-health reform rally look bigger.

The latest Faux News gambit was to use archival footage of a Sarah Palin campaign rally from last year to purport a huge crowd at a book event. Media Matters confirmed this; the footage was shown on Fox's "Happening Now" on Wednesday. Obviously, it wasn't "Happening Then," but rather November 1, 2008.

The McCain - Palin shirts (see image above) should have been a clue.

Fox News tried to palm off the footage as an honest mistake, but was it? We'll never really know. Senior vice-president Michael Clemente told the Chicago Tribune's Swamp Politics blog that "This was a production error in which the copy editor changed a script and didn't alert the control room to update the video. There will be an on-air explanation during 'Happening Now' on Thursday."